Tally-Ho! De Laurentiis' Alexander Hires a Scribe

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By Stax

According to The Hollywood Reporter, producer Dino De Laurentiis has hired his Red Dragon screenwriter, Oscar-winner Ted Tally, to adapt Italian academic Valerio Manfredi's trilogy of novels about Alexander the Great for the big screen. De Laurentiis and Universal Pictures optioned the screen rights to Manfredi's books about the world conqueror this past May. Furthermore, THR claims that De Laurentiis "confirmed that Ridley Scott has expressed an interest in directing the project and is expected to read Tally's outline at the end of next month before making any firm commitment." Scott directed De Laurentiis' Hannibal and also directed this year's Best Picture, the sword-and-sandal epic Gladiator. These two experiences make Scott an obvious choice for helming the project.

THR notes that Manfredi's trilogy was "published in 1998 in Italy, and 2.5 million copies have been published in 42 countries and 21 languages ... (and) features 30 main characters, covers 10 years of battles and the founding of 70 cities."

De Laurentiis advised THR that "Ted Tally told me he always dreamed to do a epic about the life of Alexander ... We're hoping that this will be one of the most important epics ever made." This is, however, the same feeling writer-director Christopher McQuarrie has about his own Alexander the Great biopic, which has been in development longer than De Laurentiis' version and boasts a great screenplay by Peter Buchman. (I cited Buchman's script as one of the Best of 2000.) Will McQuarrie's project move forward before De Laurentiis'? Time will tell who wins this race.

&#Array; STAX thinks it'd be a shame if Buchman's Alexander script was never produced.